Wave snakes

It has taken 10 years to make them but this week, Portugal became the first country to install red snake-like devices floating off the northern coast to produce green electricity. Inside the 140m long articulated tubes use the endless motion of the waves to drive generators and produce up to 750w at peak output which is transferred to the national grid by undersea cables. This is part of Portugal’s ambitious plans to be world leaders in renewable energies and they intend to expand the three existing wave converters to a total of 25 which will generate up to 21 megawatts. "The future of wave energy starts today," said Manuel Pinho, Portugal’s economics minister. With impressive commitment to renewable energy Portugal hopes to be meeting 31% of all its energy needs from green sources by 2020, including building the largest solar farm in the world with over 2.500 photovoltaic collectors.